TRPG General Chat

BESW

01:00

Diana Gaeta is making a series on Tiktok of "answering the top most googled questions about D&D that I never see influencers answer." First video here.

Dee Pennyway has archived their twitter threads.

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@Helwar I'm a big fan of "you're all part of the same organization," whether it be an adventuring club or a mapping guild or a black ops military division or whatever.

My other favorite technique is to ask the players how their characters already know each other.

Helwar

@BESW Yeah, I did that a few times already, was trying to get an "organic" party, but alas... It worked while the players where there xD

BESW

I had great success managing large groups with fluctuating attendance by having an explorer's club as their base of operations, and characters came and went via that building. "Atlacoya was called back to the club to handle an emergency, but they sent Chibuike here to help us while she's away."

I wouldn't worry too much about "organic" party coherence; it's an illusion in every other piece of fiction too.

Helwar

@BESW Marches style

@BESW Yeah I know ^^

I'm not too worried about that, it's one of the places where players are usually not mad if you railroad them a little into playing together. Also I'll wait to know what the new players want to play, and maybe that gives me an idea :)

Hot RPG Questions

01:36

5

Q: Does wearing a cloak over the Robe of Eyes “close” those eyes, preventing you from seeing out of the robe?

Part of the description of the robe of eyes magic item says: The robe lets you see in all directions [...] The eyes on the robe can't be closed or averted. Although you can close or avert your own eyes, you are never considered to be doing so while wearing this robe. Does this mean that the rob...

ACuriousMind

08:01

@Helwar I'd be tentatively interested, one last question - what expectations did the leaving players have this game doesn't fulfill? Sometimes it's as useful to know what a game is not as it is to know what it is. (Feel free not to say if the "different expectations" was a euphemism for other drama :P)

The Oracle

10:58

0

Q: Can a new user answer to comments under their own question?

As far as I know you need at least 50 reputation to posts comments on SE. Is it true for commenting your own questions? I thought it was, until I saw a comment to a new user's question: ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance This was a user with 1 reputati...

support comments reputation privileges

AncientSwordRage

11:34

@Someone_Evil is that the one with a race of 'evil/dumb/angry' aliens, but miraculously any PC from that Race is ok?

BESW

@AncientSwordRage That... huh, doesn't narrow the list down much, does it?

AncientSwordRage

@BESW no, but it should be easy to check if someone knows about Sw/oN

BESW

....I have the PDF, why or when I got it I do not remember.

AncientSwordRage

@BESW ahh such is life on the internet...

Someone_Evil

@AncientSwordRage No idea, I linked it purely based on the recommendation made before that, which was about the faction system

AncientSwordRage

11:46

@Someone_Evil thats cool

KorvinStarmast

12:22

@Helwar Hmm, I am trying to translate GMT +2 to US Central Time. Seven hour difference? That might not work for me...

NautArch

14:27

0/

KorvinStarmast

\o

Someone_Evil

Hellu!

NautArch

Has anyone tried out the new aberrant mind sorcerer?

TheDragonOfFlame

14:42

@NautArch yep

Not bad for a spell slinger. I don’t love the Psionic-magic blend, but whatever.

NautArch

@TheDragonOfFlame Have a player interestd in trying it for levels 3-5.

The spell additions are strong, but the initial ability of telapthy seems underwhelming.

Someone_Evil

One of the Warlocks have a telepathy ability early on, no?

NautArch

Great Old Ones, although technically theirs is only one-way.

Someone_Evil

The reply function of message is often important in my experience, so the aberrant mind has reply (I don't remember the features of it, hasn't been relevant)

NautArch

@Someone_Evil yeah, i'd probably give a GOO reply as well.

Thomas Markov

14:51

@Medix2 nooooo dont delete it

I feel like I rememebr something on this question

but I cant put my finger on it

I was thinking of the Hunter Ranger's Giant Killer feature.

Medix2

15:07

I just keep finding things that don't increase the damage but have small additional effects of completely remove the damage

@ThomasMarkov I might do more math later, but I'm just kinda tired/done rn

Thomas Markov

This answer still seems unsupported.

It asserts that a couple rulings are reasonable, but does nothing to explain why such a ruling is reasonable.

The answer is essentially just "This ruling is reasonable. Also this ruling is reasonable."

Found a black widow in my outside garbage can this morning.

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov Gosh, I would've flipped out

Thomas Markov

Theyre pretty creatures. I had to dismiss it from this life though.

Medix2

Well, TIL there's a lot more things that increase in size and thus deal more damage than I thought. But I don't think those really count :(

Thomas Markov

Apparently bugs don’t feel pain like we do.

So the spider probably didn’t suffer.

Trish

15:24

Bugs don't feel pain. They are after all only figments of irreality. Mistakes in the code.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch email coming your way with my use of the succubus for the whole adventure ... take what you like and leave the rest. 😁

NautArch

15:47

@KorvinStarmast oooooh

I was thinking of doing something with the aberrant mind sorcerer and using his background.

He's an aasimar who rejected an illithid tadpole. Was going to bring in illithids.

Thomas Markov

16:17

This is a really poor answer. Too old to flag VLQ.

Do we really need a tag for feat-qualifications?

Upper_Case

@AncientSwordRage That doesn't sound like SWN to me, mostly because it doesn't have many (any?) pre-established alien species for PCs, except for virtual/artificial intelligences

It might be Traveller's Vargar, though I'm not as familiar with that system

ACuriousMind

16:42

@NautArch how do you reject a tadpole? They usually don't quite ask for permission :P

Cooper

@ACuriousMind With a form letter, noting that you had plenty of qualified applicants, but have unfortunately decided to move forward with other options, and encourage them to try again for any future openings?

ACuriousMind

I mean, competition for brain space is quite fierce these days...

NautArch

@ACuriousMind something something aberrant mind?

The illithids are acting somewhat like a patron here.

KorvinStarmast

17:17

@NautArch In the Forge, or in another adventure?

Helwar

@ACuriousMind Well, I gave them free will to do whatever they wanted, and they kinda wanted more direction. One of them just plainly ignored me when I said there would be like half combat half roleplay, and expected a dungeon crawl. The other was frustrated because the player characters weren't becoming friends as fast as she wanted and the story advanced slowly.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast The Forge

Helwar

I mean it's hard to talk about this without ani bias ^^ I thought I was doing my best, but they didn't like it. Even after listening to their complains and trying to tie everything up a little bit more and give it a little bit more of a railroading, they decided to leave

@KorvinStarmast I'm bad with timezones, but I know we are 6 hours ahead from the east coast, and 9 from the west coast... so 7 tracks for central time, I guess :/

ACuriousMind

17:34

@Helwar It happens, I guess. Nothing there sounds like a dealbreaker to me, unless "story advances slowly" means "nothing happens" ;)

Cooper

@Helwar Two of those issues (players wanting direction and characters not becoming friends/slow story) sound like a mismatch in expectations of how much ownership the players have of the narrative! Are there any players who did better about pushing the story?

I'm biased because I'm usually the one ushering my fellow players along when things stagnate, but if you can get even one player on side to say "okay, let's go do X, unless anyone has objections?", it's super helpful. Sometimes you just need one person to be decisive

(this is, imo, the real problem at the crux of "the mercer effect", which is that players expect that the narrative is 100% up to the DM, when it's really on them to show that investment as well, but I digress)

Helwar

17:55

@Cooper Yeah that was part of the complains, one player is very assertive and she was driving the party around. I didn't even need to speak with her and she toned it down a lot, but the thing was that if she didn't do it, they didn't take agency themselves. And I kinda tried to prod them, I might have not done the appropriate moves but I tried my best

they told me that the story revolved around her... Wich as not true, she had exactly the same story hooks as everyone else, but since anyone was doing anything she took the lines that she needed and everyone kinda followed sheepishly

NautArch

Isn't DMing awesome? Players complain no agency. Player shows agency. Other players complain about spotlight hog.

Helwar

@Cooper On of the players that remains suffers quite a lot from Mercer Effect... But he's a nice guy and brings a lot of energy to the game whenever he finds a direction, and I think he will grow out of it :)

NautArch

I think my grognard might end up being the primary action-driver.

Helwar

@NautArch Yeah. As I said it's kind of hard talking about this, because it's only my perspective and this is how I see it. Maybe in their point of view things were different

NautArch

Straight up asking/talking about Player X seeming to be the party leader and making decisions and asking if all are okay with that?

Helwar

18:01

I mean, talking to outsiders, because as a part of it I'm inherently biased ^^ With them I had a couple of long chats between sessions before they decided to not continue

KorvinStarmast

18:44

@Helwar which makes 2000 your time 1300 my time on a Friday. I can do every other Friday (starting with this coming one) at best, since I usually have every other Friday off, but that's still a maybe.

Helwar

@KorvinStarmast That's ok! We can have a chat (maybe in discord?) and we can see if it works ^^

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch And we don't get paid for it. 🤣

@Helwar OK, yeah, or in the back room here.

Upper_Case

Nice update with the new SA entry, @KorvinStarmast! How did you remember that you'd written that answer years ago to match up with the new information?

KorvinStarmast

@Upper_Case It's weird, but I saw an up vote someone left there, looked at the answer, and realized it needed a bit of improvement. So I did.

Hot RPG Questions

19:54

1

Q: By numbers, is Booming Blade opportunity attack damage unreasonabe?

DM in a campaign where I am playing doesn't want to allow Booming Blade opportunity attacks with Warcaster feat. Fluff-wise reasoning is, with OA there is not enough time to first "brandish the weapon" and then make the attack. Mechanical real reasoning is, the damage of Booming Blade seems just ...

dnd-5e spells house-rules opportunity-attack

Upper_Case

20:32

I suppose that would do it

Helwar

20:49

@HotRPGQuestions Is "how can I convince my DM of this" a valid type of question? I'm confused :)

Thomas Markov

What do yall think about the dupe status here, see my comment for target

@NautArch?

NautArch

@ThomasMarkov itsa dupe

Helwar

ehhh, yeah I guess

Thomas Markov

Thought so.

The answer they gave is literally just dealing with what the ground is or should be understood to be.

NautArch

It's a bit unclear that that was their question, but giving they self-answered, it seems that may have been the confusion? I dunno.

Thomas Markov

21:03

Keep an eye on things, some of the questions from their now-closed question are not really stackable without a lot of work, and given that they added no details to this one, I dont expect much from the rest.

Hot RPG Questions

6

Q: What are the mists of Ravenloft

The mists of Ravenloft can appear anywhere in the multiverse and anyone venturing into them will find themself hopelessly lost before maybe arriving in Ravenloft with no means of escape. I've been trying to find some information about the mists online, but can't seem to find much information. Thi...

dungeons-and-dragons lore ravenloft

Someone_Evil

The Mists of Ravenloft would not be a bad name for an adventure, TBH. Or a band for that matter

KorvinStarmast

21:22

@Someone_Evil My bard agrees with you as regards the band name. 😀

Helwar

21:38

hey, weird question... What kind of instruments would be played underwater? Trying to do someworldbuilding and I got stuck at that... I guess any wind instrument gets out of the table... I don't know how do merfolk/tritons SPEAK underwater without air either...

MikeQ

28

Q: What types of musical instruments would develop underwater?

Water is different from air, and sound waves propagate through water in a different way than they do in air (caused in part by interactions with the bottom of the body of water). For a society living underwater, this could lead to some interesting innovations in music, and musical instruments. Fo...

underwater music

Helwar

huh... shame on me for not searching before asking

thanks @MikeQ !

NautArch

21:59

@KorvinStarmast Forge starts off with a save or die. Wow. Have to cross a bridge with a DC 10 dex save under fire. Failures of 5 or.more result in 200' drop to death.

Someone_Evil

@NautArch Never leave home without your featherfall?

NautArch

22:19

@Someone_Evil I think I'll adjust that. Log flume back out of the mountain.

Someone_Evil

Never leave home without your log flume??

NautArch

Right next to the 10' pole!

Someone_Evil

I assume this has been done already, but I now like the idea of starting with a drop like that that leads to a later part of the dungeon. So a failure won't be insta death, just a different approach

Helwar

@Someone_Evil that sounds interesting - quickly steals idea -

field158

Any second opinion on this question?

10

Q: Can you cast spells that do not require material components through an arcane focus?

The PHB states: Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in chapter 5, “Equipment”) in place of the components specified for a spell. However, even when looking at the S...

dnd-5e spellcasting equipment

Someone_Evil

22:28

> "Uhm... are you ok down there?"
"No, but I found a door"

@field158 What sort of second opinion are you thinking of/looking for?

NautArch

@Someone_Evil also not a bad idea :)

field158

Any, really, whether to confirm the answer or otherwise

Shalvenay

@Someone_Evil yesssss :D or perhaps the drop is the way through

field158

I'm trying to make Alchemical Savant work with Awakened Spellbook using Artificer Initiate in 5e

Shalvenay

(I've toyed with the latter idea for some time now -- making it so that you have to jump in the pit trap to continue)

Someone_Evil

22:31

@field158 I tried to leave it clear where there's room for a different ruling (and personally recommend ignore the as written working, but that's me not really liking the component system)

@field158 That sounds like it might be a suitable mainsite question, but either way what is Awakened Spellbook/where is it from?

field158

@Someone_Evil It's one of the Order of Scribe Wizard's subclass feature

@Someone_Evil Yes, it's a good answer and I don't disagree with it. I just wanted to know if someone had a different angle

NautArch

@field158 If your goal in asking that was because you're trying to figure out how to get those two features to work, then it would be really good to ask that question on the mainsite.

field158

@NautArch Sure, let me try to figure it out to the best of my ability first. Thanks!

NautArch

Asking for solutions is usually better than trying to affirm ideas :)

Someone_Evil

Because that's a setup including multiclassing and thus throwing a lot of features at the already slightly struggling component rules

As someone who's not very hot on multiclassing to begin with, Spellcaster/Spellcaster multiclassing just seems like giving yourself trouble for little gain

field158

22:44

I generally agree, this is just for the benefit of understanding how rule interactions work

Someone_Evil

That's fair, though on this topic there's mostly just looking at specifics because the general isn't too deep

Sort of musing from this; is doing special stuff with spellcasting focuses (mostly) a recent design thing? There's seems to be a lot more of it Tasha's (I suppose since Artificer from Eberron) than there's been previously (Order of Scribes, magic items, etc.)

Hot RPG Questions

23:11

8

Q: Is there any damage that changes with the size of a creature?

Spells which affect an area (e.g. ice storm) tend to have a set damage regardless of how much of the creature's body is within the affected area. Intuitively (I know this isn't how D&D always works) if a 5ft square of a creature's body within the area being bombarded by ice shards causes them to ...

dnd-5e damage creature-size

BESW

@Someone_Evil "special stuff" such as...? Because I suspect the answer is "4e did it" and possibly "3.5 loved that stuff to a fault."

4e made spell focuses functionally equivalent to weapons, as the vehicle for attack-related enchantments and also an opportunity for unique functionality based on form; like a weapon might offer a bonus to trip attacks, a caster could choose a focus that gave a bonus to push effects, in addition to whatever magical qualities the item had like "and also sets things on fire."

Someone_Evil

@BESW I mean it's probably been there in the older editions, but is now returning. It's been tying extra effects (eg. +1, add d8 or an ability modifier to healing or damage etc.) to the use of a specific focus.

BESW

And I had a 3.5 necromancer whose holy symbol doubled the amount of undead she could control.

Someone_Evil

5e in general has little enhancement effects etc. and at least the class features in question lose little by being reworked as not actually tied to the focus

BESW

Yeah, that feels like, combined with my understanding of 5e's rather loose approach to mechanical rigor, it has the potential to blast open the system's ostensible investment in hard numerical caps.

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Someone_Evil

23:23

Magic items giving up to +3 to attacks has been in the system from the start, but the newest sourcebook added a bunch of items expanding it into focuses for casters so it wasn't mostly on magic weapons for casters.

BESW

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@Someone_Evil Sounds suspiciously like back-dooring another 4e insight now that they've got enough distance they don't think anybody will notice.

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